The forked Golden Path
by Satiana
Summary: New Chapter up! Dune wasn't the first to be the home of the worms. Cultures once thought lost come back with a vengence and a woman comes to show Leto that some paths don't have to be traveled alone.
1. The Advent

Forked Golden Path 

Disclaimer: As much as I wish I owned those wonderful books and the movies that have colored my dreams for well over a decade I don't. This story is taking from the books, movie and both mini series'. I do however own the faction of women who are against the Bene Gesserit and if you ever want to use them all you have but to do is ask. Oh yeah, when it's in italics that means someone is using the _Weirding Way._

Back story Summary: Leto II is on the 'Golden Path'. His sister Ghanima won't marry Farad'n because of politics and she has yet to marry off her brother. She is however falling for him. (Farad'n). 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`**

"She's summoned the Worma're." The voice was little more than a whisper.

A single flashlight illuminated the sand. The two who met there in secret dared not to bring to life any of the main lamps, for fear of being discovered. One stood on one side of the line that divided their planet and one on the other. With each word, they shortened the life of the traveler.

"Why?"

"She suspects something and thinks her brilliant friend will come to her aid. It's truly sad what people with no hope will do. The worms will die… This has been foretold. We just have to make sure that the Worma're don't interfere and alter that assured future."

"Then… we have to stop the Worma're bitch."

There was a momentary pause. "Are you suggesting…?"

The hooded head nodded. The silence seemed to stretch out until it was broken by an ominous murmur. "One more makes no difference. We have to take whatever steps that are necessary to fulfill our goal. No other can alter our plans."

A chilling gust of wind began to blow. Seeming to deaden the land and with it went the two's courage.

"Did you feel that? It seemed…unnatural. Maybe we shouldn't – "

Cold hands clasped cold hands in the giving of reassurance. A voice replied soothingly, 

"Just a draft from the coldness that grips my half of the world. It changes nothing. The Worma're has to die."

**_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_**

Leto II ran effortlessly across the sands, and laughing at the freedom he seldom felt. It was only here, in the desert that had taken his family and embraced them throughout the unfolding of their legacy, that he felt truly at home. 

Ghanima remained more and more at the palace rarely traveling outside its walls choosing to spend a large portion of her time with her politically betrothed. Leto felt like he was more and more losing his sister to her pull of her own heart, and after all that they had been through he wasn't sure if sacrificing his humanity and his sister both would break him. They had always been close. Closer than any other could imagine. Two separate bodies, but always of the same mind for so long… Until his destiny had changed that. He figured it was only natural that Ghani would feel it as well, and would seek out the human companionship of another… Something that he could no longer supply with the level that he had once done… He knew she felt him pulling away as well. Seeking solace more and more within the sands of Arakiss.

Catching movement out of the corner of his eye, he abandoned his conflicting thoughts before they could become any worse, and looked up as a gray streak far off to the west plummeted like a rock from the sky. When it hit, the ground red spread faster than blood at a Freman raiding party. Frowning slightly, he changed directions to see what happened. 

~~~ 

By the time he arrived, the worms had left nothing but the ship. It was obviously a passenger ship but the passengers were absent. Two pairs of foot prints left the ship but ended abruptly by a worm hole. Praying absently for their obviously lost souls, he looked back to the ship and found that he didn't recognize it. The craftsmanship was beautiful and indestructible. Then a question began to nag at him.

_Why did it crash? _

**_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`_**

_The sands of our old home run red with the blood of our people, my child._

The stately woman watched as green eyes looked out from beneath black silk. She could feel the smile that sat on her face. A small laugh escaped the black silk. 

_This is not a time to laugh my child. Our people **will** die if the worms die. You must go to Dune and make sure that the spice flows._

_Mother, give me a day to prepare and I will leave for Dune in our fastest ship. But do not try to force me to go. It is not our way._

She stood and the silk fell around her form in flowing waves, as if it had a mind of its own.

Shandre'la knew he was watching her… could sense him near, but she didn't care. The people in the square stood behind a thick cage and watched as she preformed for them. Thoughts of her mother's words almost had her decapitated and the audience ate it up. Somewhere in this crowd was Leto II and she was going to find him. Her eyes searched the crowd purposely and her body was pure poetry in motion, completely swathed in the light-weight black cloth so no one could visually see any portion of her body, other than her eyes. She took it seriously. Her pitch-black hair was plastered to her damp neck and face from the heat, body tight, and muscles clenching and releasing to a soundless rhythm as she went through her workout with fierce determination. There was no point in doing it if you didn't do it for real. Her feet and hands dodged flying Blades that moved with deadly precision. Twelve flew in the air at her but none made contact with her skin. The sharp sounds of the volatile weapons slinging into the stone and mortar of the walls echoed throughout the room. She let out her pent-up breath when the last hit the wall with a sense of finality and a familiar rush of elation filled her at having accomplished… well... **one** of her goals, at least.

Now it was time to see if she had accomplished the other. And as it was, it was the only one that mattered within this moment upon her. Not yet another one of her victories over the dangerous dance with the Blades, which, despite the extreme rarity of one being able to fend off 12 at one time on this planet, it was a common enough practice for her. But if it served its purpose like she believed it would, then it would have proved itself to have been more than worth her time.

The audience cheered in awe of the show, as she calmly watched her companion and friend come in the cage and picked up the now dormant Blades and the currency the crowd had thrown in. Ever since Alia had killed herself, prosperity had returned to Dune. People crowded the streets and they needed entertaining. Since the plane had crashed in the proverbial Mecca of planets Shandre'la and her maid Marisa took advantage of it. 

Her green eyes turned slightly as it was drawn towards a cloaked man she spotted walking through the thick throng of people. There was something undeniably enticing about the way he moved through a crowd.   
  
A sort of effortless prowess, a hidden agenda, as if he were merely socializing, but in actuality, he was avoiding being at the center of attention if at all possible. No one talked to him because to them he was a shadow, but Shandre'la knew different. She saw him for what he was. Not what he was pretending to be. The only way he made a pass through a crowd was if there was something he wanted on the other side, and the only way to attain this thing was to bite the bullet and part the proverbial Sea.   
  
She'd noticed all this about him, and as he made his way through the crowd toward her, she half-wished she didn't know him. Her dreams were centered around the moment they would meet as was the curse of being pre-born. It made his meet-and-greet song-and-dance seem a little less magical, but not by much. It _was_ a dance, to be honest... For such a man, he was unspeakably graceful, lithe... Any casual observer would have thought he'd be exhausted by the time he emerged, but she knew differently. This was his life. 

Initiating a surprising movement, she bowed to him, the black silk of her veils rippling and the crowd watched in wonder as she slowly uncovered her face. Green eyes met sapphire blue ones with a steady hint of challenge. 

"It's nice to finally meet you Leto II." 

The crowd collectively gasped and stepped hastily away from their duke. She watched with unnoticeable amusement as a man who thought he could never be surprised ate crow pie. She knew he couldn't read her, but it was taxing for her to use her powers to keep her mind shielded from his perusal. Her people were dieing and she needed his help. And she was already running out of time.

He looked at her warily and asked the question that was on all minds.

"Are you Bene Gesserit?" 

Instantly, her emerald green eyes hardened till they glittered like hard gems, and she couldn't suppress her reflexive hostility towards him. To assume that she was one of the most hated of enemies of her people was more than just insulting, it was horrifying. Words flew to her lips before she could censure them.

"The Bene Gesserit believe he who controls the spice controls the universe. My people are of the spice and I've come to warn you that the Golden Path you now travel on is forked and will lead your sister to her death and you to insanity."

Before she had a chance to see what his response was to her warning, yet another pair of sapphire blue eyes flashed within her vision upon the sudden and dangerous movement of one within the crowd, and she reacted instinctively. Fist shooting up to wrap around the hilt of a wicked looking dagger that had been flung at her with deadly precision. Aimed at her heart. 

"The Worma're are back! No one wants you here. You're worm killers!" 

Her hardened emerald eyes lifted from where they gazed contemplatively upon the quivering point of the blade just a few inches away from the calm beat of her heart… But they met her would-be assassin with glittering hatred and determination. His fate sealed within those eyes.

It never even occurred to the fool to make a run for it.

"Your water you give freely for your forked tongue. We kill no worms." 

Flipping back around the blade caught within her hand, she forcefully flicked her wrist. Sending it back to its master faster than most of the eyes within the crowd could see. 

When they finally did see the blade again, it was protruding the bloody mess of its owner's forehead. His body crumpled on the sand that was quickly beginning to stain with crimson. 

Shandre'la cursed her temper and stared in horror as a Freman died by her hand. Rightfully so, but still… She wasn't a killer, and would never be comfortable with the death of another upon her hands.

Marisa had come to stand behind her throughout the entire incident, and looked over at one of her own people. Empathy and concern reflected in her gaze. 

"My lady, it's alright."

"No…" Shandre'la murmured in response. Sadness reflected in her tone and briefly within her eyes. "It's not." 

Her gaze left the corpse and turned back to Leto, whose own gaze had never even left hers. 

She swallowed against the knowledge that even though he was unable to 'read' her, her moral conflict had been all too easily witnessed.

But she didn't blink, didn't turn away. Her eyes became cool and impersonal once more. Even against the intensity she saw within his glowing indigo one.

Remembering why she was here, she spoke again. This time with a little bit more formality. Her mother's words once again echoing within her head. 

"Dune was not the first to bear the worms." 

~*~*~*~*~


	2. The Claiming

**(A.N)** Let me first say that from here on out I have the most amazing editor in the world helping me. Her name is Rachel Peters (Sapphira) and let me tell you people the woman works wonders. The story wouldn't be what it was today without her help.

Chapter Two

Shandre'la had been 'escorted' – and none to gently – to the Palace. To be honest, she truthfully did not blame them as they had just had another uprising on Arakis and it was with extreme caution and cloaked weapons that they accepted one not of their own.

 Women dressed in clothes that revealed more expanses of bare, toned, and lightly oiled flesh than they concealed scrutinized openly and some not too kindly, her and Marisa, who were swathed strangely in gray. People who in her opinion should be nowhere near the thrown shot glares of what they believed was intimidating hostility at her, and Shandre'la had a mind to laugh at them until she glanced over at Leto. Obviously still trying to read her.

"Is this how you treat an emissary from another planet? I thought Dune was the center of the universes. Even upon the surface of my homeworld we obviously understand what better hospitality is." 

Peasants and others like them gasped, stunned that she would speak thus, but Leto didn't bat an eyelash.

"And where exactly do you come from?"

She adjusted her hood once more so that it remained upon her head and then looked up and pointedly past him. If he wanted to be rude, then she would very well do the same, and something told her that she would be far superior at than him.

_Where do you come from?_

Marisa snickered as Leto tried to inflict the Weirding Way on her mistress. It was like a inept child trying to pick the brain of an experienced adult. Shandre'la raised her hand in silent command and Marisa immediately ceased her amused laughter. Putting her hand back down, Shandre'la's robes fluttered around her like a dream of black silk. She turned to Leto and even though he couldn't see her smile, she did. And he knew it.

"Where I come from makes no difference, for when I came it was doomed. Why am I here, is the question you should have asked me. But since you didn't I will answer it for you. I come to deliver a message."

Ghanima spoke up for the first time. Making herself known as she sat upon the ancient thrown with Farad'n standing dutifully by her side. "We take no messages from masked women. Benne Gesserit witches run rampant on our sands as if they now possess them."

"One day they shall if your family – No…" Shandre'la turned to Leto who now stood on the other side of the thrown. Meeting his gaze so strongly with the emerald intensity of her own that she saw his flicker slightly in response. "If **you** do not change the path you have embarked upon. It will only lead to death."

"And how do you know this? His path saved us all. Why should we listen to you?" 

Shandre'la turned to look at the one who had spoken and stopped on Farad'n. Her eyes grew hard. She had no love for the Benne Gesserit's or the old Royal family. Their families shared an unpleasant history and they would always have old scores to settle with one another.

Her lips twisted sardonically. "The royal dog speaks. But one must learn when to pull the leash and when to let their pets run free." 

Leto's voice whipped forcefully through her mind. _Answer the question, woman._ The guards prodded her painfully in the back with their weapons. She let out a breath in exasperation.

"Alright, but only because you asked nicely, Leto." Her words and voice were sarcastic. "Dune was not the first to bear the worms." She locked eyes with Leto as she said this. He nodded for her to continue but she remained quiet.

"If you want to make this harder we can make it harder." Ghanima motioned for the guards and then they prodded her in the back again.             This time with enough force to bruise her skin, even through the cloth. Marisa warily stepped back a fraction, knowing Shandre'la's temper was as fierce as her tongue. It just took longer to retract. She stood back and out of her mistress's way. Waiting for what she knew all too well was about to happen.

The foolish guard went to prod her again – this time with a blow hard enough to send Shandre'la to the floor – and found himself on the said ground at the wrong end of his weapon.

_"You hit me once, and I forgave you. You hit me a second time, and I allowed it. But touch me again and you **will** die."_ Her voice grew colder and she slipped into a strange and unfamiliar form of the Weirding Way. She looked up to the thrown again. Eyes blazing and words dripping with disdain. "As I said, Ghanima… You need to train your **pets** better than you have."

Releasing her hand, the spear clattered on the precious inlaid stone beneath her feet, and she took a step forward – towards the raised dais where Ghanima was perched – and right into Leto, who suddenly shimmered through the space separating them faster than the eye could see. Blocking her path with the line of his own body pressing into hers from just a few inches away. She didn't flinch back because she knew he was coming. She would always know.

"Why are you here?" His voice had darkened slightly and he almost aggressively took a step forward. She took a step back. Not allowing the subtle distance between them to be closed, even though something clenched deep within her in reaction to his nearness that had nothing to do with fear, and everything to do with why she had come this far to stand **exactly** where she stood in the first place.

"As I said before…Arakis wasn't the first to bear the worms, or your family the first to set foot upon the Golden Path. A hundred years ago on a planet called Sun'calador in the galaxy of Moran, the Golden Path was originally forged by my ancestor. While my families powers were at its peak a hundred years ago, we never feasted in the spice because we were **of** the spice. Our lives were short and so went time. Our world was torn in half by that Path and now half of our world is forever water while the other is sand. A mockery of the deserts that once flowed across the entire surface. Our people, in order to survive, searched for another planet. Dune was our choice. We sent our workers here to watch over the worms and protect them."

Shandre'la paused for a brief moment and took in a deep breath.  "Now… here I stand.  The last of a Royal Line of waning powers to tell you to remove yourself from the Golden Path before it is too late, and before what happened to my homeworld and its people – my people – happens to yours."

Leto shook his head slightly and took another step towards her. Shandre'la retreated. 

"You didn't answer me. Why are you here?" 

Step. Retreat. Step. Retreat. It was as if the two of them were locked within some form of strange dance, and that right there was probably more of the truth then she wanted to admit. For indeed, something **had** just begun. 

"You spoke to me of your history, but why are you really here?" He took another step. But this time, Shandre'la had had enough and stepped up to meet him. Closing the distance till they stood with barely a shadow between them. Close enough that if she focused just a little bit, she could feel the heat from his skin, even through her robes, and she could hear the pulse of his heart.

She didn't focus… but the knowledge was still there. And she wondered briefly, wildly, if it was the same way for him.

If his sapphire gaze was anything to go on, then she would never know. But he didn't step away.

Her slender hands came up and she slipped the hood back. Allowing it to fall back against the space between her shoulder blades relishing in a thick, frothing cascade her silken mass of black curls that fell down the line of her back. Smelling of the desert sands and the uniqueness that was all her own. Her slightly defiant, highly passionate green eyes never turned away… Never broke from his own. They were two strong individuals. Both leaders. Both rulers in their own rights. Neither would be submissive to the other. Neither would ever admit defeat.

She spoke aloud, and although everyone around them watching could hear her words, they were only for him.

"I came to Dune for one reason. I came to find what I've dreamt of my whole life. A creature of the desert." Shandre'la ran her hand gently along his sandtrout skin and smiled slightly. Her movements were partially hidden by the closeness of their bodies. Leto's electric eyes flickered again with unreadable thoughts and emotions. He didn't tense, didn't pull away, but there was a sudden stillness to him that spoke to her louder than any words ever could.

And although that stillness was meant to intimidate, Shandre'la was not the least bit afraid of him, and that knowledge was reflected quite plainly within her emerald gaze.  

It appeared as if they both had finally met their match.

"I've come to offer a divergence of your Path and a way to a better future. I've come to take my husband and **you** are he."

~*~*~*~


	3. The Dismiss

Chapter Three

The court collectively gasped and looked on in horror. Leto violently snatched her hand away from his body and took a cautionary step back; knowing that his allies as well as his enemies scrutinized their every move, looking, and waiting patiently, for weaknesses. They didn't need this now. This woman held a power over him but it wasn't the power she thought she held. She now controlled the people. Whatever words that would fall from her lips they would eat up and it would spread like a wildfire on the new grass of Dune.

Much like his father's had on the dwindling sands. 

"Clear the hall." Ghanima ordered. Clearly knowing what thoughts were running through Leto's head, just as she had always known, but he didn't dare turn to his sister. Farad'n protected her well, more than most would have expected from him, and the woman had said herself that she had come for but one reason. 

Him.

As the people quickly filed out, they took enough time for their eyes – glittering with a vast array of emotions – over Shandre'la and then her servant before they left. The scuttle of rough cloth against floor and bodies echoing loudly within the elaborate chamber was enough to drive Shandre'la – who had lived her whole life in a quiet desert – mad. 

Marisa, on the other hand had grown up on the waterside of their home planet and loved the noise. It reminded her of the waves that had always crashed against the hulls of their ships. 

"Your offer is duly noted and appreciated, but this Path I chose and I **will** see it to its conclusion." As he spoke, Leto continued to keep his eyes on hers. Most people he could read but she was a puzzle, a Pandora's box that if left closed would be a constant annoyance to open and if opened would bring hell to Dune.

And he could still feel the heat from her fingers where she had touched his chest.

"You have traveled far and I am sure that you and your servant are exhausted. Your rooms will be prepared immediately so that you will have some place to consider home until you decide to depart." Farad'n would have smiled at the shock that he witnessed in Marisa's eyes if not for the anger he saw in Shandre'la's. 

"You act as if we've just come when in actuality we've been here for a week! I thank you for the hospitality, although I would like to know why it is given so freely to someone you obviously know so little about."

"As you said," Ghanima began. Wanting Shandre'la's hostile gaze on her instead of Farad'n before she continued, "Dune in the center of the universes. We must set an example." 

Shandre'la tilted her chin up slightly and her eyes flickered with tense acknowledgment. She glided backwards a little ways. Signifying the end to the conversation and then watched in bemusement as guards moved in to flank her. 

She turned back to look at Ghanima.

"Am I a guest within these Palace walls or a prisoner? Or do you treat one the same as the other?"

"You'll find out now, won't you?" Ghanima muttered darkly under her breath. Only Farad'n heard, and he discreetly moved closer to her attempting to soothe her anger and frustration with his proximity. 

Aloud she said, "One is **not** the same as the other, until they show that they are dangerous and have ill intentions toward this family or my people. You killed one of the Freman."

"It was self defense." Shandre'la cool countenance wavered almost painfully when reminded about what she had done causing her to briefly forget her intense need for control at all time, and in so doing, briefly weakening her mental barriers. It was exactly the opportunity that Leto had been waiting for. Watching for.

For a brief moment in a place where time did not exist, Leto quickly slipped past her walls and into her mind. And what he saw made him want out as fast as he could leave. 

Her very soul was tormented and dying. The heartbeats of thousands were linked to hers and while they multiplied, they also died faster.

Shandre'la watched him calmly as Leto's body flinched and his hands trembled slightly. Knowing exactly what was happening to him. What he was experiencing. Feeling. Seeing. Touching. It was, after all, something that had been a part of her very existence for quite some time.

Swiftly closing her mind off from his, she forced herself to remain standing where she was. Rooted to the flooring. "If you stare long enough into the abyss, the abyss will stare back at you, Leto. What you just saw is the Path you long to take." 

He gave no more outward sign of having been rattled in the slightest by her words, but she knew that he had heard them. And for right now, that was all she could expect. 

For the first time practically since they had met, Leto removed his gaze from Shandre'la's to look back towards his sister.

"Ghanima, she means us no harm. She wouldn't do anything to endanger her life, simply because she is tied to so many others."

"Then just take her to her room." Ghanima pressed her lips together into a thin line. Waving her hand in a dismissal as the guards jumped to do her bidding. 

They stayed a respectable space away from Shandre'la. Not because they respected her, but because they feared her. She had already shown one of the members of their own ranks that she was as swift and as skilled as their duke and they didn't yet know just how powerful. They had no way of genuinely defeating someone like her if she developed a mind to resist them as her escort, and they all knew it. Thus the cautious distance.

Shandre'la could have cared less what they thought of her in that moment. So long as they left her alone.

Marisa looked over at Shandre'la worriedly as they turned around in preparation to leave. Knowing that for her to have let her guard down long enough for Leto to have slipped past her barriers, something had to have happened. She just didn't know how to broach the subject as they were escorted pointedly away from the royal family. Only when she saw Shandre'la stumble did she know her fears were well warranted.

"Mi'lady, it pains me to see you in pain."

Shandre'la sighed in exasperation. "It pains me to be in pain, Marisa. Ask your question and be done with it." Wincing suddenly, she grabbed at her side and tried to catch her breath. Clenching her teeth against the sharp phantom pain that ran through her body as if it were her own as her eyes screwed shut. Biting out enough words to soothe over the intensifying concern flowing through Marisa. 

"It means nothing but that my worm is being ridden." 

Marisa nodded in understanding. They'd let Shandre'la's bonded worm free on Arakis. Knowing it was the safest place for it to be. What happened to one would happen to the other, and they were both a planet's last hope for survival. One was to breed and the other to marry. 

And as of right now, it didn't look like one would be fulfilling their side of the bargain. 

~*~*~*~ 


	4. The Walk

**AN: Sapphira has now become co-author to this story. You'll see why when you read it. There's a depth to it that I know wouldn't have been there without her help. Also all the other chapter's have been reposted and there's a lot added so if you read them already I'd strongly advise you to go back over them. Trust me. When I say the girl is good I'm not lying. **

Chapter Four

Sleep didn't come easily for Shandre'la that night. She was worried. She was in pain. She was frustrated. She'd waited all her life for the moment that she would stand face to face with the fabled Leto Atrates… dreamed of the moment that she would offer him her body and eventually her heart, and he didn't even seem to want to look at her. She had trained and studied and subjected her people to their final resting place to get here, yet he stood unmoving, uncaring. Not batting even an eyelash when he had pushed her away.

Letting out a breath in frustration, she sat up, silken bedclothes pooling in her lap as she looked over at Marisa, who was snoring gently where she rested upon their shared bed. 

_Sleep well my friend… At least one of us will. _Quietly sliding off the opulent bed big enough to fit eight and only holding two, Shandre'la's slender hands reached through the rich sheer panels of curtains that removed the sleeping arrangements from the rest of the room, and slinked past them. Letting them fall back into position with a silent shudder of fabric against fabric. Shards of moonlight cast a simple yet elegant play of pale and dark shadows across the large chambers. Encompassing her as well within its embrace. The play of light against dark danced upon the revealed skin of her neck and shoulders, catching iridescently and swallowed up within the thick and luxuriant mass of black curls that cascaded in a giant tousle to a place slightly below her hips.   

Padding stealthily over to the chair where her black over garment rested, she picked it up and slipped it on… Buttoning it up almost absently, she looked out into the night and over the massive veranda that was laid open to her Chambers, shielded only by a few more sheer panels of cloth that fluttered welcomingly in the moonlight. Inviting the scent of the desert winds and sands to play upon her senses.

She wondered where within that vast desert was her worm. It would take too much strength and concentration than she was willing to spend at the moment to call to her in the darkness of the night when she was probably sleeping comfortably, and considering that there was genuinely no reason to do so as of yet, it would be more than a little foolish to try. 

Suddenly catching movement out of the corner of her eye, she felt more than saw Marisa move restlessly in her sleep and Shandre'la quickly stilled. She didn't need company tonight. She needed solitude and peace, and she would only find that on her own. 

_Sleep my friend, and dream of a better world where The Golden Path has taken no victims._ And Marisa relaxed. Drifting down further within her slumber. 

Pacing over to the entrance into the Chambers, the black silk of her robes brushing sensuously against her toned body, she carefully opened the door till a slender crack of open space appeared, and peered out.

She saw the guards that were posted outside her door and sighed more in annoyance than anything else. They were meant to keep a watch on her, and insure that she did not leave her quarters. Bringing to mind in bemusement the words she had spoken tauntingly to Ghanima earlier. Words that were being flaunted oh so obviously back into Shandre'la face.

If she were in the mood for it, it would be child's play to tamper and play tricks on their unprotected minds, but as it was she just didn't feel like it if she didn't have to.

She closed the door and turned to face the open veranda. Looking uneasily down at the massive drop to the sand below, she suddenly remembered why she had always been afraid of man-made heights and turned rather quickly away from it. Feeling that annoying sense of vertigo bubbling up from within her stomach and not liking it one bit. 

It looked like it would have to be the guards then. She opened the door again in resignation. Just as careful as before not to give her position away. 

_The waking and the sleep will bond tonight. Let your wishes take wing and your hearts stay light. Work while you sleep and let me free as I say, so mote it be. _

She smiled slightly to herself in satisfaction as a glazed expression fell across their features like the curtains had fallen back just moments prior to shield her bed, both instances also similar as they allowed her the right to leave unheard and unseen, and then frowned at herself in reprimand. Remembering all the lessons she had been privy to growing up about the wrongness of using your powers against the unsuspecting. 

But she would have to chide herself later. **After** she came back from making good her little escape from this palace/prison and had finally had a chance to breathe in freely the secrets of the desert sands that her soul was crying out for so insistently with an almost feral intensity that if she had stopped to think about, she would have realized just wasn't something that she had experienced at such a level before, at any time in her life.

Setting out in determination, she tried to recall the exact route that the guards had taken her and Marisa on, but a sinking suspicion rose up rather quickly within her mind that they'd been taken through a maze of corridors, filled with disconcerting twists and turns, so that they'd become confused and get lost if they tried to leave on their own. When she saw the same exact painting for the fifth time, Shandre'la pulled to a stop and glared at it as if it was to blame for her present circumstances, till it occurred to her what exactly it was she was looking **at.**

It was a panting of the royal family. The twins and their mother and father. Obviously painted from the imagination of some wistful artist, as such an event had never had a chance to take place. Such a moment had been lost forever that fateful night that the twins had been borne to a night being torn apart by lightening storms and the finality of the course of the future. Heralding the changes that were shifting through the sands beneath them and the beginning of a terrifying destiny. A destiny that their mother had died for, and a father who had abandoned them to. Unable to face the envisioned future ahead for them all. A future that he had unknowingly taken a part of creating.

 She studied him for a while, eyes tracing the hansom but strong, regal lines of his remembered likeness. Wondering if he had known the hell his son would suffer for his inaptitude. Knowing that he had. Which is why his son had had to accept the agony of the destiny that his father had not been strong enough to take upon himself as he had always been meant to.

It was then that she sensed it. Bringing her out of her reflection of the Royal Family's past. The light caress of silk across her skin, and the phantom smell of fresh air as it whispered to her. Calling for her. 

Closing her eyes as her body subtly relaxed, she followed it and the smell of the spice. The way it resounded against the core of her body and pulsed within her veins. 

Her brain was on auto-pilot, called by some unfamiliar but welcoming force, as she walked where it willed her. Passing pillars without hitting them and going unnoticed in the dark of night by the servants. She was nothing more than a shadow to the world around her, and when her feet finally hit the sands…only then did she open her eyes. Blinking warily.

Taking in a deep breath of the wonderfully scented night air, finally free from the stifling confines of the Palace walls, she found herself gravitating towards a sharp cliff overhand that looked out over the desert just a little ways off in the distance. It held a power over her that wrapped snugly around her heart and body and made her feet move of their own violation towards it, as the wind brushed across her skin and against and through her dark silk robes. Pressing the fabric against her body, lining it in sharp relief, and sending locks of her soft hair tumbling into her face. Catching upon her lips and eyes and forehead as they danced in the gentle breeze. Her feet sinking rhythmically in the still cooling sands… Still carrying lingering traces of the warmth from the day's sun.

When she finally drew closer to her goal, she saw that two figures were already standing like lone sentinels upon the cliff. One male and one female. Golden tresses spilled from the female, and as she walked closer Shandre'la recognized it to be Ghanima. 

She couldn't help the fact that her lips twisted sardonically at the insinuation this image produced, and stepped closer out of devious curiosity, knowing that they could neither see nor hear her. 

But, as she found out, taking another step brought her face to face with Leto. Who most certainly had. 

Which would make her wonder later as she thought back on it, just how long he had been watching her.


	5. The Attention

Instinctively jerking back and away to keep from stepping right into him, she frowned as a rather pleased and sardonic grin graced his lips for a moment. "I would have thought you had seen me coming. After all, your family is more adapt in the sands than mine. Oh, that's right… your family apparently is on the **downward** slope of The Golden Path." He didn't put hardly any emotion into his voice but she knew from the look in his sapphire gaze that he was making fun of her, and to say that it rubbed her the wrong way was an understatement.

She looked over his shoulder to see that Ghanima was still on the hill with what she now knew had to be Farad'n. 

"And what are you," she mockingly bowed, "Great Duke Atrates doing out here so late at night?" Her voice dripped with sarcasm. She knew she was playing directly into his hand  and he knew it, but she also knew that the moment earlier when he had slipped past her temporarily fractured shields to look into her mind would be the absolute **last** time he got in without permission. 

If he was insulted by her words, he did not reveal it. She was beginning to see that he revealed mostly nothing about anything that might be going on inside that head of his. And she couldn't help but swing back and forth between approval and frustration over that simple little fact.

"I am protecting the royal family from a potential threat. I'm also here to ask you a question." He stepped past her and pointedly started walking away from the intriguing cliff. Obviously expecting her to follow and reluctantly she did, but only after one last lingering look towards that direction. She would have to find out later what if was about that spot that was calling so intimately… She had a feeling she wouldn't be resting easy until she did.

"Ask away, Duke," she encouraged with a slight humorous twist to her lips as she pulled abreast of him. Knowing that he wasn't a duke at all. He'd given up that life to be a desert creature. She could try and as defensive and sarcastic as she liked, but she knew nothing would ever let her forget that. Despite his distrust and obvious disinterest, to her, he was beautiful and dangerous. Compelling and attractive in the same way that the desert around her was, times a thousand. Even if it was an attraction that he had already made clear he would not participate in, even after the almost callous way she was pushed aside, she couldn't help the way something deep within her clenched tightly. Aching to be a part of him. 

The wind picked up around them as they walked, leaving the cliff behind nothing more than a distant memory, and it caught up within his hair. Blowing it almost teasingly into his face. She clenched her hands into fists tightly, nails digging into her palms, in order to resist the urge to move it back out of his eyes for him the way a lover would.

She knew he would not appreciate the gesture.

"I found a ship deep within the desert that had crashed. Was it yours?" When she nodded in affirmation he went on. Carefully watching her for any telltale emotions. "Why did it crash?" 

Shandre'la stopped for a moment and looked up at him, emerald eyes meeting sapphire ones unflinchingly, before walking again.

"Do you believe in fate?" Her change of topic did not slip past him. She didn't let him answer her unsuspected question. "My people believe in fate. The fate of my people rests upon my shoulders, but there are some who would see my people die before our mission is complete." She led them into the open desert before she started talking again.

"Stomp." 

He blinked. Looking at her quizzically. When all Shandre'la did was look back at him expectantly if albeit blandly, he reluctantly did what she had told him to. Keeping an eye on her the entire time as if he didn't quite know what to make of her.

Only as the pounding rhythm of his foot reverberated deep within the sand, she Shandre'la continue with her story. "My people, from the moment they are born, are tied to the worms. The men are tied to the Sandtrout and the women…" Shandre'la paused for a moment as she began to feel the sand beneath her feet start to rumble with more than Leto's insistent call. She smiled as she felt the rumbling become stronger.  "…To these." She finished as the air around them suddenly quivered and thrummed with the force of the magnificent creature coming to her. The ground shook as if it was held within the jaws of a massive earthquake. One in which they were at the heart of. 

Then the sand a little less than a hundred feet away from them exploded violently from the inside out. Showering them with the microscopic crystals as a worm shot just its head free from the ground.  The rumblings and hisses that emitted from it a pale comparison to the sounds it could make when it felt unhappy or threatened.

It slithered its head out far enough to come almost within touching distance of them and came to a stop. Resting its massive head complacently upon the crushed sand beneath it.

"This is Septinia. The worm I am bonded to." 

Shandre'la didn't even spare Leto a glance as she made her way closer to her waiting companion. If she had, she would have been more than taken aback by the way he was looking at her. 

 She walked around to the side of Septinia and placed her hand on her quivering side. Feeling the surprisingly textured yet soft skin of the worm. Still very much heated from the warmth of basking in the sun. And for the first time since arriving on Arakis, Shandre'la felt a moment of almost complete tranquility.

"What I feel, she feels, and the other way around. She's never been ridden before and today someone rode her for the first time." Shandre'la's eyes wandered over to the area where a Fremen had hooked onto to pull himself up upon Septinia's back, remembering the shared pain, before turning to look over at Leto for the first time since her worm had appeared. He was as calm and cool and for the most part as unemotional as he was every time her eyes ever came to rest upon him, and it bothered her more than she wanted to admit.

A thought suddenly occurred to her.

 "I ask only one thing of you. If I am to die, I want you to cut the ties that bind her to me. One of us has to live." She turned back to look at Septinia as her hands lingered in one reluctant long stroke before falling away completely as her worm effortlessly receded back into the sands. Swallowed up by the heart of Dune welcoming its child back within its embrace.

"What do you mean, cut the ties that bind you to her? How would I do that?" He watched as the worm's recently created tracks and the indentation of her head were smoothed away by the desert winds. Erasing any proof that such an incredible creature had just been there. Making the moment that Shandre'la had spent with her feel almost like a dream. She smiled faintly, finally turning her gaze towards Leto, whose eyes had drifted to the dune-swept horizon, and had yet to turn back to look at her. She wondered for a moment what it was he was looking at, and then pushed that thought away. Whatever it was, she knew that expression well enough to know it was not being seen with his physical eyes. 

"You take my head." 

Leto's head snapped in her direction. Deep sapphire eyes reflecting the brilliant stars unblinkingly above their heads like a mirror till they looked as if they were drowning with the universe suddenly buried deep within them, and again she felt a strange sense of vertigo for the second time that night at the almost frighteningly beautiful sight. His focus had become completely centered on her with those unexpected words falling from her lips.

Finally she had his undivided attention.   

~*~


	6. The Loss

Chapter Six

~*~

He could barely comprehend what she had just asked of him. A minute ago he probably would have loved nothing more than to lop off her head, but now… Now he wasn't so sure. To take such a lovely head from an equally lovely body—what he'd seen of it—had to be a crime within itself. But Leto found himself nodding anyway, and vowed to her that he would do it. If such a conclusion became inevitable. But he also made another vow. This one a silent but determined promise to himself… He promised himself that he would never allow such a conclusion to befall her so long as it was within his power to prevent it. He didn't know why he suddenly felt so different about this woman, but since he felt very little about anything or anyone anymore, that in and of itself made him undeniably and suddenly protective.

Even though he knew how incredibly foolish he was being for even allowing himself to follow such unpredictable and unsettling instincts felt towards an outsider.

But even so, he looked at her with different eyes than those that had seen her a few minutes ago. "Tell me of your home world, Shandre'la." 

She almost jumped as the phrase came straight from his families past—as well as hers. She didn't know how to describe to him the destruction and the death that had resided on her world for years. The deserts of her world had sheltered her through a group of people who knew she was their last hope. She'd been trained, beaten within an inch of her life to see if she could take it, mind raped, starved, put in solitary confinement, and everything else she could think of as a child. Rubbing her wrists, she was vividly reminded of a dark memory in which she had hung from them briefly.

"There isn't much to tell you about my home world that you don't already know. My people are dying because most of them sent their bonded worms here to prolong their lives, only to find that your planet deteriorates faster than ours." She turned away from him and started walking deeper into the desert. She'd followed him and now he followed her. There was something she wasn't telling him and it was like bait for a fish. He saw Shandre'la smile and it was almost like the desert had suddenly lit up. He couldn't help but be drawn to it.

Turning to him, she included him in the light that was her. "Do you like to run? It used to soothe me when the trials of my life became to much." 

Smiling almost impishly, she didn't wait for his reply. Instead she took off. Surprising him with her burst of speed. Knowing that he would follow. He could do nothing else.

Their feet barely touched the sands, and the beautiful landscape of the light of the moon spilling over the haunting yet welcoming sands of Arrakis passed them with blurring speed. Shandre'la had had an original and specific location in mind that she had intended to head towards, but found that following Leto was far more fun. The smile on his face made her forget things that were supposed to be her top priority and she forgot many things that should not have been forgotten. How long had it been since the last time he had experienced such simple joy in his newly evolved existence? How long had it been since he had found joy… in anything?

Shandre'la's wonderings were cut off when a dart of pain ran through her body. Suddenly reminding her that while his powers were limitless right now, her powers weren't. 

Visions of death grew in her mind like her family tree. They wouldn't stop and there was nothing she could do. And then it happened. She felt the deathblow of her entire nation. 

Even knowing that it would inevitably happen didn't prepare her for the pain she felt as her peoples' lives were severed by a Path that had once been kind to them. 

The edges of her vision faded black from the pain, hands that were clutching the sands of Dune for dear life went slack, and her body rolled in on itself—a fetus in a vast stomach that was now Dune. A scream tore from her throat but she clamped her mouth shut. Withering in pain she did the one thing that she knew would be both kind and cruel at the same time. She used that last of her waning power and cut Marisa's bond to their world.

 Leto stopped when he found that she wasn't behind him anymore and watched as the first rays of the sun hit the cold sand and chased across it like the fall of golden and amber water. 

Confused, he followed his footsteps back the way he had come. The sun that he'd just welcomed in its rising, beat at his naked back and lit the way in front of him. There was something coming in hard and coming in fast off to his left. He recognized the familiar sensation, but when he glimpsed the blue hide of the worm, he knew immediately that something was wrong. That worm was not a native to these sands, and as it cut effortlessly through the sands with a precision that made it look like Dune parted the way for it he knew only one thing that would make it that frantic.

_Shandre'la._

Running in the direction that the worm was traveling, he tracked it's straight line to a still, dark form in the sand. He got there first but just barely. She was sprawled across the sand as if she'd been dropped there. He surprised himself by immediately picking her up and was even more surprised when he felt how much of her was just cloth. She felt as light as a child and was as angular as a skeleton. That's when her hood fell back and he found that she almost **_was_** a skeleton. The area around her eyes was sunken in and darkly shadows. Her lips bloodless and abnormally thin. It was as if her water had been almost completely drained from her body and was just now being slowly replaced.

The worm disappeared under the sand only to appear underneath him. Leto cradled the comatose woman even closer to his chest and balanced both his weight as well as hers as he centered himself on the back of her worm. There were foot holes for him so he didn't need to ride like he'd been taught. All he needed to do was hang on to Shandre'la and watch grimly as her worm instinctively rushed towards civilization.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

"The Worma're are dead?"

"Yes—but… The voice stuttered nervously and the figure bent lower, hoping that the darkness of the room would hide them so long as they didn't move from the floor.

_What do you mean 'but?_ The voice and the person with it was very much like the desert. Cruel and unyielding. The figure on the floor shrunk lower knowing that to fail was to die… and they so didn't want to die. 

"Shandre'la wasn't on the planet. The Golden Path still runs rampant in her blood but her powers are severely limited now in any case." The shuddered out answer proved to be the strike to the match of a timeless and unpredictable anger that was never sated. 

"Severely limited…" The voice laughed and the figure stood knowing exactly where to go. Cloth whispered and sighed against the ground and a crow perched comfortably on her shoulder. "Limited. She was supposed to be killed. Dead. Deceased. Decomposing. But now she still has Leto. Her power's are definitely **_not_** limited." The voice spit the last out in hatred. "She has just forged a new path in time, and given me yet another significant problem to deal with."

"I apologize mistress. I did not know. I will fix it." The figure started to shake his body seemed to shrink and turn cold. 

"Yes, you will help me with my problem…by dying." She didn't even move as the man's blood splattered her dress or when the head rolled over her shoe. She just looked up at the child who had struck him dead and smiled faintly. They both had a score to settle with the ruling Dune family.

"Don't fail me child, or your head will roll."

"Is that supposed to scare me?" The child laughed and it was as evil as her glowing blue eyes. 

"Most men would be pissing on themselves right now." The older woman pointed out calmly.

The child shrugged nonchalantly and looked down at the fallen servant below her. His blood pooling dark crimson around his headless body. She kicked at his side contemptuously with one dainty foot. "Such is the case when working with men." 

~*~*~*~ 


	7. The Wakening

~*~

Chapter Seven

~*~

Marissa woke suddenly, gasping for air as the knowledge that things had changed during the night filled her with its oppressive shadow. All of a sudden she felt cold. Bereft. The so very familiar song of her family, her loved ones, had vanished from her mind. Leaving nothing but a deep, dark, painful void in its place. Her soul felt like it was shattering from the severed ties. It was incomplete and without her other half. 

Looking around desperately for some sort of distraction from the building pain, she didn't see Shandre'la anywhere and a choked cry slipped from between her parted lips. Desperately trying to fight back the panic and not succeeding as well as she would have liked. She was alone. There was no one else here. There was no one to save her from the frightening cloud of knowledge that she was now totally alone in the universe. 

Growing desperate, she tried again to feel her family her worm. Tears burned behind her eyes and blurred her vision. Keeping her from seeing. It simply _had_ to be there. It had to… this couldn't be happening… 

But it was… The yawning chasm spreading wide from within her mind was proof of it. 

She dragged air faster and faster into her lungs as she fought back the sobs. Tears running down her face and agony knifing sharply through her heart as she flashed back to the memory of her half of the world covered in water. Her bonded, her love, her life was dead.  

The door slammed violently open, and she jumped. Unfocused gaze darting to the entrance as Leto quickly strode in with Shandre'la clutched to his bare chest. Their gazes locked for a moment, and she knew he could read the emotions and tears on her pale features, but he didn't acknowledge her till he was looming over the bed. Shifting Shandre'la's limp weight in his arms in preparation to lay her down on the silken bedding.

_Move!_

Marissa glared sharply at him for his attempt to use the Weirding Way on her, but she did as he ordered. She knew by the cold, black void in her mind Shandre'la had felt it necessary to spare from the pain of actually feeling their world finally die. She had cut her off in an attempt to save her from the brutality of it.

Even though she had known it was coming, Marissa hadn't been prepared for it. For that final goodbye of her bonded. Nothing, not one single experience in her entire life could have prepared her for that. For her fate, her death. How could she have been? It just wasn't something that you could truly ever be ready for.

But looking down at Shandre'la's still form, a surprising rush of purpose filled her. She didn't have time to deal with the grief now. It wouldn't help either one of them. Right now she had to keep her one last link to her world from dying right along with it.

"I will tend to her. Set her down and bring me some spice." Marissa didn't meet Leto's gaze. She didn't want to see whatever emotion it was that might possibly be there. She didn't want to be give her battered heart a reason to break down again. But as he set Shandre'la down carefully she could sense him nod his head in affirmative. Then calling to one of the guards to see to the task. 

Marissa pushed her hair back from her drawn face. Only allowing herself to focus on Shandre'la as she quickly removed the over shirt that Shandre'la had on. Flinging it to the side where it fell to the elaborate marbled floor with only the faintest wisp of a sound at its passing. 

Her palms came to rest on pale, smooth skin revealed by the deep plunging neckline of the undershirt. Resting above the smooth swell of her left breast and directly above her heart as she went about the task of trying to pump life back into Shandre'la. 

Feeling it pulse once, she drew her hand back and brought it down shockingly hard. Hitting her soundly.

Leto moved forward suddenly at the sight of the barbaric action. Thinking Marissa was attempting to lash out at Shandre'la because of her own grief. 

But before he could reach out to stop it., his eyes were met by Marissa's gaze… And the raw emotion he saw glittering there brought him up short.

"Stay back!" she hissed angrily. "You have _nothing_ to do with this!" She turned back quickly to Shandre'la. Unaware and uncaring of Leto's sudden realization that she knew the Weirding Way. She backhanded Shandre'la hard across the face. The force of the blow echoing in the chamber. "_Listen to me sister. Come back to me," The _tears began to run down her face in silent rivulets._"Now more than ever you need to be strong. There is no place for us to go. You know this. I control the water and you the sand. We are the only balance left for this world. I can't lose you, too."_ Marisa turned when the guard walked into the room. Carrying a bowl of spice.

But when he caught sight of Marisa's expression, he came to a halt. Not even a direct order from Leto could have made him cross the distance separating him from her. Setting the bowl down where he stood, he turned back around and made a hasty retreat. Leto went over and picked up the bowl. Bringing it to her. 

Opening Shandre'la's mouth with one hand, she poured the spice in her mouth and poured the rest over her eyes. She carefully closed her slackened mouth and turned to Leto. Handing out her slender hand and ignoring the way it trembled slightly.

"Give me your knife." She didn't ask or question whether he would give it to her. There wasn't any time for that. She knew he would do it, because a man who didn't want to save a woman would never have brought her to the one place were she could be saved, or to the only person who would know what to do.

Leto handed her his knife without question and she pressed against the underside of her wrist. Dragging its sharp edge over the delicate, transparent skin protecting the fine tracery of veins underneath. She didn't even flinch. She was beyond pain at that moment.

Her blood swelled a bluish red between the lips of the wound and she held it over Shandre'la's eyes. Watching as her life's essence spilled out onto the dying woman's face.

_Wake._

_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`_

A ship cut through the galaxy with a speed that broke all laws and regulations. The pilot cared not for the police of the galaxy and proved this by flying past them without hesitation or concern. 

When she finally reached her destination, the child brought up a hologram so they would not know who she was. They let the evil into their world with an ease that would soon frighten them.

The child was slowly becoming a woman and her blue eyes were as piercing as any Fremen when she landed on the planet. Taking her time, she shut down her ship's systems. Listening to the cracks and rumbles of the ship's hull as it shifted and groaned under the planets pressure. She only had to wait but a few moments before she could hear the sounds that only a Fremen could make. The sound of their approach feet as they maneuvered through the desert sands, studying her ship were not lost to her. And neither was their curiosity and cautiousness. 

Turning from the consol, she made her way to the hatch and let them come. She waited until she saw their blue eyes. It was in that moment when she struck.

_Submit to me._

Eyes that were once blue turned a sickly black and the people bowed in submission.

The woman smiled. Curved lips awash with evil intentions. She had work to do, people to kill, and revenge to take. The Golden Path would be taken even if she had to drag them by a leash every inch of the way to their violent, bloody fate.

. 

_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`_

The world was white, brilliant white and bitter, bitter cold. Exhausted, she was unable to do more than trust that she was going forward in time. Always forward. She knew that to stop, even for a moment, in this cruel and keening wind would most certainly mean death.

The pain in her side was a freezing burn, and served to be the only thing that kept her from sliding into oblivion entirely.

She was lost in that white globe, blinded by the endless miles of it that blanketed hill and tree and sky, trapped in the frigid hell of vicious snow melded into icy shards in the whip of the gale. White had once been a beloved color, but now… Now she wished for the intrepid color to flee from her sight. Though even the slow, monotonous movements of her horse brought her agony, she did not yield.

At first the cold had been a relief from the scorching yellow sun. It had, she thought, cooled the fever the wound had sent raging through her. The unblemished stretch of white had numbed her mind so that she'd no longer seen the blood staining the planet. Or smelled the stench of her people's death.

For a time, when the strength had drained out of her along with her blood, she'd thought she heard voices in the rising wind. Voices that had murmured her name… and had whispered another.

Delirium, she'd told herself. For she didn't believe that the air could speak.

She'd lost track of how long she'd been traveling. Hours… days… weeks. Time had no meaning here. No purpose. Her first hope had been to wake. But now all she wanted was simply to find a decent place to die.

Perhaps she was dead already and her hell was this endless winter. She knew she deserved hell for not saving her people.

She no longer hungered, though the last time she'd eaten had been before the death of her people. The planet, she thought dimly, where she'd been born. It had been foolish, carelessly foolish, of her to ride from home alone. She thanked the gods that Marisa had stowed away on the ship. She'd left like an avenging angel from her planet and now she felt like a thieving fool. She'd stolen her people's last hopes.

The trio of enemy soldiers had struck without warning.

They would never see home now. It was gone.

Surely this was the land of the dead, or the dying. Or the unforgivable guilty…

When she came to again, the snow was at her back, and she faced a white, white sea. Or so it seemed. Just as it seemed, in the center of that sea, a silver island glittered. 

Through her hazy vision, she made out turrets and towers. On the topmost a flag flew in the wild wind. A golden rose blooming full against a field of white. 

The sands were fading and that's when she heard it.

_Wake._

_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_


End file.
